A coalition called Better Choices for New Jersey has formed to call for the increase of taxes with the intention of not needing to cut any items from the budget. The director of this coalition has stated that it would be against the interest of working families. Well I fail to see how raising taxes in a state with high poverty, decreasing jobs, and already high taxes is in the interest of working families.
In this last year 10,000 jobs have already left the state to other places where the government doesn't have a strangle hold on them. And I am not talking about out of country, many of these jobs have been leaving to other states. The Budweiser facility in Newark is leaving to another state as I type. The manufacturing facility where I work was offered a FANTASTIC deal by the state of Virginia to move our factory down there. The deal included no taxes for 10 years. NJ cannot beat that.
A recent study has shown that 1 in 5 people in NJ cannot afford the essentials and how are we going to improve the situation by creating an environment where more jobs are going to leave NJ. Much of the solution that the coalition proposes is taxing the top 10% and the businesses more than they are right now. What a great idea! Lets encourage those with money and those who employ residents of NJ to leave, that will solve our problems.
And they want to increase the fees associated with drivers' licenses and motor vehicles. This seems to counter common sense considering that the price of gas is at an all time high.
There are plenty of things that should be and need to be cut from the budget. NJ is the ultimate Nanny State. Reform needs to take place and Better Choices for New Jersey wants to maintain the status quo. And look where the status quo has gotten us! NJ Familycare is hemorrhaging money, workers' comp is in shambles, local bureaucrats and politicians are indicted every week, the state government can't afford to maintain its own pension fund, and both NJ Democrats and Republicans have shown no initiative in stopping any of this from happening.
Better Choices for New Jersey consists of the AARP, the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, the Communications Workers of America, District 1; New Jersey Citizen Action, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, the New Jersey Tenants Organization, the Rutgers Labor association, the Sierra Club of New Jersey and the United Presbyterian Church of Paterson.
Click here for the news article.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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3 comments:
I could not agree with you more. The simple fact of the matter is that by minimizing both taxes and government spending, people all over New Jersey would be able to afford the services that the government haphazardly attempts to supply. If people were allowed to spend their own money as they see fit, families could choose the services that fit them best, not the ones the government forces upon them. I know that in the part of Pennsylvania where I go to school, people are constantly moving in from New Jersey. It always seems that taxes take the form of the Pied Piper, leading families out of our state.
You assumption that business will leave the state because of higher taxes is erroneous and misleading. There are numerous reasons that business and families live in NJ. We have some of the best schools in the country, which parents want for their children and business wants in the work place. We have a strong infrastructure and with out investment, it will wither away. How many business and families will want to live in NJ if our bridges start to collapse and they have to deal with potholes on the Turn Pike.
Most of the people leaving the state are middle income working families, not the affluent residents - whose numbers are rising in NJ - that will bear the majority of the tax increases suggested by the coalition.
If the affluent paid their fair share working families would not have to face the rising property taxes that are squeezing out so many NJ residents.
If you want to get rid of the waste in the state, push for public financing of campaigns. This will eliminate a great deal of waste because those elected to office will not have to pay back favors to those who funded their campaigns.
Jim,
I am glad that you posted, I think this blog benefits from having opposing opinions posted though it is a Libertarian blog by nature.
As far as I know infrastructure is not being cut back on in the budget, I may be wrong. If it is then it hasn't been reported on.
As far as affluent people leaving NJ, I know many that have left. I know it is only anecdotal evidence but the reasons they left seem to be able to be applied to others as well. One of the families I know that left had their property taxes increase threefold in two years. Even the wealthy can only afford so much taxes, especially when all their money is in business assets.
And the story about the business I work at being offered incentives by the state of Virginia is true, and I know that those same representatives have been visiting other interested businesses.
Its a tough situation but you cannot deny that businesses exist to make a profit and that NJ is currently sucking away so much of it from them that they are looking elsewhere. As far as how many businesses would move statistically, I don't know, but I can guarantee that a know at least a few that would.
- Sean
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